BauMax wants 100 extra staff

BauMax – a leading DIY equipment chain – has announced it aims to hire 100 additional employees this year.The company said today (Thurs) that it is seeking 100 new staff for its 67 shops in Austria. BauMax explained it planned to open “seven to eight” new branches in the country this year. Eight new BauMax shops were opened across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 2010.BauMax runs an overall 149 branches in Austria, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The firm, which has specialised in providing tools and building materials to private clients, is headed by Martin Essl and based in Klosterneuburg, a town to the north of Vienna.BauMax has around 10,700 employees across all the countries in which it is doing business. Firm officials said today that the company’s Austrian branches managed to increase turnover by four per cent year on year to 640 million Euros in 2010. They added that the firm’s overall turnover improved by seven per cent to 1.5 billion Euros at the same time.BauMax bosses explained they wanted to improve customer service to attract more clients. A spokesman for the company said: “The number of people having a go at ‘do it yourself’ is in decline as the young generation is growing up more used to computers than hammers. That’s why we try to ensure that our employees’ advice is helpful and easy to understand.”Company officials said keeping prices low in other CEE countries has been a key challenge. BauMax bosses referred to a study showing that Austrian households have an average 34,700 Euros to spend per year, while families in the Czech Republic (11,200 Euros) and Romania (7,000 Euros) have to manage with significantly less.